As electrical connectors grow more complex, the associated manufacturing costs and assembly time increase correspondingly. This is particularly true for high pin count “pin header” connectors of the type illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B. These pin header connectors are male connector components with one or more rows of contact pins and are typically used inside of electronic components, for example to connect to a ribbon cable connector. Pin headers may be through-hole mount devices with straight pins that are press-fitted into a mating component, or surface mount technology (SMT) devices having solder dip pins (“tails”) bent at a ninety-degree angle for soldering to a solder plane on a printed circuit board (PCB) or other component. The pin headers may also be THT (through hole technology) devices, PIP (in in paste) devices, as well as solder versions. Pin headers can be straight or angled, with the angled version typically used to connect adjacent PCB's together. Pin headers of the type depicted in FIGS. 1A and 1B having a plastic guide box around the pin rows are often referred to as “box headers” or “shrouded headers.”
Conventional pin headers are generally produced in a one-step process wherein the pins are “stitched” into the front face or plate of a unitary insulative header component. Thus, different variations of pin headers require unique tooling and, as the pin count and types/arrangement of pins grow, so do the tooling and assembly requirements/costs. For example, a 64-pin count box header may be manufactured with straight or right-angle solder tail pins, or with different spacing between pins, or any number of other contact element variations. The tooling and assembly costs for these different variations can be quite significant.
The present invention provides a modular alternative to conventional pin header connectors (and associated assembly process) that is cost effective and provides manufacturing flexibility to accommodate different variations of connectors.